UK Immigration: Britons Want 'Drastic Action' To Reduce Immigration

Me too!

And me!

Hear, hear! Well said sonofasailor!

The National Audit Office puts the cost of Britain’s bank bailout at £141bn, as at March 2013.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

What is not included in this figure is the fact that banks have been allowed to access unlimited funds at 0% interest at will since the beginning of the crisis. They are not bound by any regulation as to what rate they charge consumers. So they get the money for free and charge 18%. They are doing this to re-liquidate their losses. This is money from our taxes.

These 0% interest rates (lauded by everyone as if they are a good thing) are, however, applied when it comes to savings, so quite frankly you might as well stuff it in a mattress or bury it in a jar. Safe pensions are making nothing. The double bugger is that with quantitative easing....the printing of money....even if you keep it in a jar it loses value. These things are on top of the 'natural' market condition of suppressed wage growth and seemingly irrational inflation.

It is really unbelievable that these guys then pay themselves huge bonuses which they shelter from taxes off into foreign lands or use to buy houses which they subsequently let out at high prices - on which they pay reduced taxes. Or they rent them to poor people on benefits through the council to the effect that now all these 'wasted benefit funds', (tax pounds) actually end up in the pockets of the guys reaming the system in the first place.

So we turn to some guy/girl who was perhaps rammed through some underfunded school, looked upon as a piece of crap since they were old enough to understand a scowl, tossed into a world where there are no jobs except for some crappy, zero hour, sit-by-the-phone nightmare, every ounce of dignity and self worth wrung out as he/she has a bit of the wrong accent, faced with going to a job centre which hasn't posted a position since that G4s privatized black hole of public expenditure took over and what do you expect?

Why don't they drive a van down through Chelsea telling those thieves we want our money back?

The thing is I can understand  people who are on benefits. I can understand why people want to have children, even if they are poor. I can understand people with addictions. Is it right or wrong? I don't know. But I can put myself in their position and see how they ended up where they are. I have heard that opioids immediately take away all worry and that within a very short time the body becomes addicted. So foolishly you try them and before you know it you are in serious trouble and can't stop. I have worked jobs that pushed me to the limit of my mental endurance, ones not where I didn't respect the work but where I detested the management's disrespect for the employees to the point where it affected my personal views of self worth. I have been very fortunate in that I didn't end up on benefits – but I can understand.  I can understand that if you are on benefits for a while how it would be easy to continue.   

I can understand refugees and economic immigrants, or those who move to a new country for love, or even just to see a new culture.

But I just can't begin to relate to anything about those who feel they are born to rule or feel the need to measure themselves by how much they take from others. I can't understand this need to evaluate one's self like that, like how some feel better when they beat someone up or take their money gambling. That seems alien to me. How could you possibly get satisfaction from administering pain? Or getting someone to sign a tricky 'gotcha' contract. I would feel repulsed.

I think it has a lot to do too with what you want in life. I want to be healthy because I have seen sickness and it is bad. I want clean water and clear air and safety from harm. I require a certain amount of food and warmth, and I feel better when I have eaten and am warm. I like to laugh and feel loved. The thought of being homeless out in a cold rainy night is an on-going dread, so I hope for shelter. I like seeing pretty things and things done well, and reading about how stuff works. I seem to function better if I have a little space and privacy to unwind. There are certain work-related things I enjoy doing and do well and I like doing them to the best of my ability and being respected for them.

I think if you have these things and someone who loves you to share them with, what else is there? Health, education, quality goods, warmth and protection and spirit raising activity....pleasure in others' company.

 And why would I want to deny anyone else these things?

And why would I want to deny anyone else these things?

Lovely post!

Mmmm in the article..... this quote from Boris:

"We have had something like a 60% reduction in immigration from New Zealand and I'm not sure that is entirely what we wanted to achieve."

Mmm.... as long as you're white, speak English, have some British cultural understanding...... you can come in. We don't want you if you're anything else.

 

Mmmm in the article..... this quote from Boris:Mmm.... as long as you're white, speak English, have some British cultural understanding...... you can come in. We don't want you if you're anything else.

Yes Beet, this is a peek behind the curtain.

I think it has a lot to do too with what you want in life. I want to be healthy because I have seen sickness and it is bad. I want clean water and clear air and safety from harm. I require a certain amount of food and warmth, and I feel better when I have eaten and am warm. I like to laugh and feel loved. The thought of being homeless out in a cold rainy night is an on-going dread, so I hope for shelter. I like seeing pretty things and things done well, and reading about how stuff works. I seem to function better if I have a little space and privacy to unwind. There are certain work-related things I enjoy doing and do well and I like doing them to the best of my ability and being respected for them.

I think if you have these things and someone who loves you to share them with, what else is there? Health, education, quality goods, warmth and protection and spirit raising activity....pleasure in others' company.

 And why would I want to deny anyone else these things?

Cosmic. And true!
Thanks.

Cosmic.

Oh good Lord, it is.....

First of all the EU Commission is calling for some facts behind those EU immigrant claims:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24522653

Apparently the UK figures are cooked.

But more importantly, about UK benefits, we must remember that the majority of 'benefits' go to the elderly.

Listen, the 1%, or as I like to think of it, the 5%, they love when we turn on one another. Poor students gnashing their teeth at poor old people. Working class folk against working class. Single mothers shamed. They play us like a cheap fiddle. I have more sympathy for a junkie in the gutter than some vile financial analyst who manipulates data to rob people of their pensions and then claim to be too big to fail. The junkie may be a failure, but this other guy is cold blooded and self-aware.

^^^ THHHHIIIIIIIIS^^^

I read that Michael Goldfarb article when it appeared. I thought it was interesting and really well written and I completely disagreed with so much of it. I've lived in London since 1994 and I found a lot of it suspect. Like:

For the quarter of a century I have lived here a sense of community has defined my life

A sense of community? In London? Well, uh, maybe. Particularly f you extend that sense to: "neighbors calling the cops after three months when your undiscovered body starts rotting behind the door of your anonymous flat."

Since I've lived here, this city has always been horribly expensive. And middle-class folk have always moved out to the country once they hit their 30s. Yeah, it's worrying that parts of this city have become Monaco on the Thames but oh well. It's more troubling that the supply of lousy jobs that sustained the fled of youth into here seem to be drying up.

 

I'm planning on attending a school in Scotland for my postgraduate degree next autumn.  I'm hoping like hell they don't take the advantages that Tier 4 students have if they want to switch to a Tier 2 Work Visa (aren't held to the yearly limits or the Resident Market Labor Test if rolling off a Tier 4, if you find a job).

Its too bad given my past experience in England that the US and the UK couldn't come to a reciprocal agreement on immigration.  The English I've encountered as so turned off to the Eastern European migration, when I discuss that I would want to relocate to the UK nearly everyone cheers my plan (which I find is unexpected).

I'm planning on attending a school in Scotland for my postgraduate degree next autumn.  I'm hoping like hell they don't take the advantages that Tier 4 students have if they want to switch to a Tier 2 Work Visa (aren't held to the yearly limits or the Resident Market Labor Test if rolling off a Tier 4, if you find a job).

Its too bad given my past experience in England that the US and the UK couldn't come to a reciprocal agreement on immigration.  The English I've encountered as so turned off to the Eastern European migration, when I discuss that I would want to relocate to the UK nearly everyone cheers my plan (which I find is unexpected).

Great Britain is part of the European Union. Eastern Europeans have every right to come here.

I understand that but it doesn't change that many of the English I've run into don't want them in England.  I'm not placing a judgment on that one way or another but it does seem to be how many people think about the Eastern European migration into England. (I don't sense the same reservation among the Scots).

Hi,

I've said it previously here on UKY, there's a very very deep seated vein of racism in the UK and it extends further than what many people would believe.

Also, as a 'culture' the British are very much known for 'keeping up with the jones'  and 'curtain twitching' - that filters into the whole 'one upmanship' (sp?) and large parts of the population overspending in order to appear as though they've 'made it'. It's just ingrained into the UK culture as a whole. As various snippets that are reported here on UKY, you'd be very surprised/shocked at what some people you'd 'think' had more brain power and intelligence will sometimes say and some of those people are indeed in highly skilled or paid jobs/businesses up and down the country. It's no wonder then that these kinds of thoughts and views are shared amongst the very breadth of the UKs 'society classes' from the very highest to lowest.

There's many viewpoints and the 'noisiest' ones which say 'the UK is overcrowded with immigrants' really do need to look at the Census data where I think they'd (if they're clever enough) shutup. The Polish people who've very often come in for criticism in 'taking all the jobs' number 521,000 as of the 2011 census data. Basic simple logic says that they haven't 'taken/stolen all the jobs' because I and I suspect everyone on UKY knows perhaps a British, Australian, American, Indian, Canadian and so forth, person who's working in a job. So that instantly proves them wrong. When you then see those brain dead idiots posting up videos driving around parts of UK cities/towns that are more popular with a certain ethnic minority, it doesn't take much logical thinking in that of course you'll find those specific areas with more concentration of those ethnic minorities - hit them with a figure of what the census data shows, perhaps they'd shutup?  My background is north Indian by descent (British Born) and looking at the data again, as of 2011, there's 1.5 million people resident in the UK of Indian origins, and 1.2 million people of Pakistani descent. The Chinese who also have a sizeable community make up 466,000 people. I know there's many more countries with sizeable populations here, but I think the groups above represent the vast bulk of 'immigrants' to the UK over the last few decades/since the 1950's. So give or take a few, that's around 3.6 million people of 'immigrant' backgrounds in the UK. Given that the population of the entire UK is around 63 million I make that to be around 6% of the UK's population as made up by these ethnic immigrants. Disclaimer - I've taken the population figures from the wiki which in turn I think the people who update it get the information from the official government reports/statistics office etc. I know that this data isn't 100% accurate, but it's the most accurate source of data that can be used in discussions etc-

So, just from those figures, why are those 'noisy' people saying things like 'all our jobs have been stolen'? and 'we don't want all this immigration' ? could it possibly be that many migrants come to the UK to work? could it be they'll do the jobs many British 'white' people consider below them to do? could it be that a significant part of the UK's white population expect the government to hand out benefits to them and yet look with disdain at someone from an ethnic background doing the same? as for actual numbers, then out of that 3.6 million people of ehtnic/migrant backgrounds, again logic will tell you that only a small(er) percentage of them are actually claiming benefits and on the flipside, considering the rest of the population is (for the vast part) numbering lets say around 57 million people (i don't know exactly how many people of other ethnic background add to that 3.6 million tally) will be of the indigenous white population, then percentage wise, they'll have a much larger amount of actual people working, claiming benefits etc? maybe perhaps those 'noisy' people calling for 'drastic immigration reduction' should look at figures first?

Then we of course have the media blowing things out of proportion and other's coming in to say vote for the 'independence' party etc. If that 'independence' party comes into power, I'd be very worried for the future of the UK, and I'd look to get out of the UK as fast as I could. The UK cannot survive on it's own as it were, it needs to be part of a larger community - currently the EU. There's not enough wealth generation the UK can create to effectively look after 63 million people/maintain current living standards. I think living standards would slip, cost of living would significantly rise and quality of life would significantly reduce if the UK went 'independent'

An interesting point above about movements of people as they go along their lives - i.e moving out of London and living somewhere more semi rural etc. That does indeed happen, provided jobs and flexibility for them exist. I've previously employed people - max number was 28 and although that business isn't around in the same form, due to the slowdown it's now around 7 people. I'm not a part of that and will be going my own way and close to launching my next venture. I've decided for now, I don't want to employ anyone and built a framework/business back end which effectively will allow me to do that. If things do take off to a level I might want to employ, I will consider it at that stage, but will want to put doing that off for as long as possible. Other small businesses and their owners are also thinking along the same sorts of lines where possible - this does and will have an impact on the jobs and labour market and is perhaps something which isn't reported as often in the wider mainstream media currently.

In short - the UK needs immigration to survive currently. The indiginous population aren't for the most part wanting/wishing to do the lower end/unskilled jobs and thus those jobs are being taken by immigrant workers.

Overall Disclaimer - I know there's many more intrinsically linked issues and concerns covering all parts of immigration such as jobs, racial tensions, fraud, crime etc etc and to discuss all of those in a single post is too much. Given that the UK also likes to spend eon's talking about things and ends up taking more eon's to actually 'DO' something about it, it's likely the overall position will still be the same in the short to medium future. If parts of my post above perhaps might appear to some as negative, I apologise, I only wish to mention things as part of a discussion and based on thing's i've personally observed/heard etc.


Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

as a 'culture' the British are very much known for 'keeping up with the jones'  and 'curtain twitching' - that filters into the whole 'one upmanship' (sp?) and large parts of the population overspending in order to appear as though they've 'made it'. It's just ingrained into the UK culture as a whole.

you'd be very surprised/shocked at what some people you'd 'think' had more brain power and intelligence will sometimes say and some of those people are indeed in highly skilled or paid jobs/businesses up and down the country. It's no wonder then that these kinds of thoughts and views are shared amongst the very breadth of the UKs 'society classes' from the very highest to lowest.

Given that the UK also likes to spend eon's talking about things and ends up taking more eon's to actually 'DO' something about it,

This observations could apply to just about any country anywhere and are not UK-specific.